World No. 8 South Korea names ‘full-time’ manager for WBSC Premier12 battle
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<p>SEOUL – The manager to prepare and lead the Men’s South Korean National Team at the first-ever WBSC Premier12 of Baseball this November has been named, the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) League announced Monday.</p>
<p>KBO, South Korea’s top professional sports league and WBSC Member, appointed the chief of its technical committee, Kim In-sik, to guide No. 8 South Korea against fellow Group B opponents — No. 1 Japan, No. 2 United States, No. 6 Dominican Republic, No. 10 Venezuela and No. 12 Mexico.</p>
<p>Kim will look to position South Korea among the four nations with the best win-loss records in Group B, in order to advance to the quarterfinal-knockout stage, where the four nations advancing from Group A and the four nations advancing from Group B will collide. Group A is composed of No. 3 Cuba, No. 4 Chinese Taipei, No. 5 Netherlands, No. 7 Canada, No. 9 Puerto Rico and No. 11 Italy.</p>
<p>KBO explored naming a coach from its 10-team league, but ultimately decided to hand over the National Team to Kim, who led South Korea deep into the 2006 and 2009 editions of the World Baseball Classic.</p>
<p>“We felt a [currently] active KBO [club] manager wouldn’t have enough time to get ready and lead the National Team,” KBO said in a statement. “A full-time boss is better suited to help the team achieve the best possible results.”</p>
<p>Announcing KBO’s full support for the National Team last month, Kim said:</p>
<p>“We will look to finish this global baseball battle with the Premier12 top prize in our hands. The National Baseball Team is a source of pride for our entire country — we take it very seriously and need to honour this responsibility. KBO takes great pride in having players from our league representing the Korean National Team.”</p>
<p>South Korea will take on Japan to open the WBSC Premier12 on 8 November at the 40,000-seat Sapporo Dome. It will be the first time in six years that the star-filled/professional National Teams of Samurai Japan and South Korea face off against each other.</p>
<p>The full tournament schedule, bracket and full list of venues for the WBSC Premier12, scheduled for 8-21 November in Japan and Taiwan, were revealed last week by the world governing body.</p>
<p>The biggest international tournament on the calendar, the Top 12 countries from the WBSC Baseball World Rankings will unite for the first time ever at Premier12, in a global battle that will challenge each nation to prove and defend its world rankings, with a $USD multi-million purse and large-scale bonus of ranking points at stake.</p>
<p>With Kim’s appointment, the three qualified nations from Asia have their managers set for Premier12: No. 1 Japan (Hiroki Kokubo), No. 4 Chinese Taipei (Kuo Tai-yuan) and South Korea.</p>
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